A disk device, or disk drive, is a device that writes data to a magnetic or optical disk and reads data stored on the disk. There is a type of disk drive called a slot-loading type disk drive that carries in and out, or loads and ejects, a disk through a slot. Because of its thin profile, the slot-loading type is widely used in notebook computers.
A typical slot-loading disk drive has a bezel on a front face of its case, and a slot formed in the bezel. The disk to be loaded is inserted halfway to the slot. When the disk pushes a disk carrying mechanism slightly, a loading motor starts rotating. The rotation of the loading motor actuates the disk carrying mechanism, which carries the disk into the case. Then, a loading slider slides to raise a lifting frame. The lifting frame is raised from a lowered position to a chuck position where the disk is held by a chucking head of a turntable unit. Subsequently, the lifting frame is slightly lowered to rest in a read/write position, and the turntable unit starts rotating the disk to read data from or write data to the rotating disk by means of a pickup head. Upon a press of an eject button, the disk carrying mechanism works to carry out, or eject, the disk through the slot.
The lifting frame is arranged to place its front end mounting the turntable unit in the center of the case, and configured to swing vertically about a shaft on its rear end so as to bring the front end up and down. With no disk loaded, the lifting frame stays in the lowered position. The pickup head is held between two guide shafts attached to the lifting frame, and moves in a disk-radial direction along these guide shafts.
A current trend requires the slot-loading disk drive to have an even-thinner profile. In view of this, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0301722 A1 (corresponding to Japanese Patent No. 3822621) discloses a disk device that lowers only the turntable unit and keeps the lifting frame up and flat in the disk ejecting operation. This serves to eliminate the space for moving the lifting frame from the flat (horizontal) position to the lowered position. To lower the turntable unit, the instant disk device has two sliders that slide crosswise in accordance with the movements of the disk carrying mechanism. Each of the sliders has several cam grooves for receiving cam pins of the turntable unit so as to raise and lower the turntable unit in a horizontal posture.
However, configured to keep the lifting frame flat in the read/write position as the disk is carried, the instant disk device cannot provide an enough space for inserting the disk, making it difficult to insert the disk. Additionally, since the instant disk device uses many cam grooves and cam pins to move the turntable unit in a horizontal posture, the increased number of components raises the manufacturing cost.